From announcing plans to scale back pediatric prior authorization requirements, to nearing a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission in a case involving insulin rebates, here are 10 updates on UnitedHealth Group and its subsidiaries that Becker’s has reported since May 19:
1. Minneapolis-based Fairview Health Services will stop scheduling patients with UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plans effective Jan. 1, 2027.
2. Optum Rx, UnitedHealth’s pharmacy benefit manager, named Zack Jacobson as health plan market president.
3. UnitedHealth subsidiaries and the Federal Trade Commission reached a tentative agreement that would resolve allegations the companies had “created a broken rebate system that inflated insulin drug prices.”
4. UnitedHealth Group was one of 45 healthcare companies included in the Wall Street Journal’s inaugural list of the Best Companies for the Future.
5. Optum subsidiary SC Affiliates acquired six AmSurg facilities amid St. Louis-based Ascension’s acquisition of ambulatory surgery center operator AmSurg. Ascension and AmSurg were required to divest the facilities as a condition of FTC approval.
6. UnitedHealth was the top-ranked healthcare company on the 72nd annual Fortune 500 list, which ranks the largest U.S. companies by revenue.
7. UnitedHealthcare plans to remove about two-thirds of its prior authorization requirements for patients under 18 by the end of 2026.
8. Massachusetts filed a lawsuit against UnitedHealthcare, accusing the insurer of retaining more than $100 million in fraudulent Medicaid payments.
9. Optum Rx named Jon Bosland as CFO.
10. Matt Settergren joined Optum Financial, a financial services provider that focuses on consumer health accounts, as COO.
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